The linked article claims that that is a artificial limit put on by WinXP to encourage the uptake of NTFS. Win98 can use FAT32 on large hard disks with no problems.

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IIRC, the XP limitation applies to creation of > 32G FAT32 drives only. Format the disk using a 3rd party tool, and I believe XP will recognize / use it w/out issues (don't have XP so haven't seen this in action, though).

FYI, just purchased NSLU2 and updated to R63. Testing out an 80G IDE drive in USB enclosure formatted into 2 equal FAT32 partitions (created with partition magic) and connected to USB port 2 (while EXT3 drive is on port 1), and NSLU2 did recognize it, and unit presents these 2 partitions as two shares to the network. Have successfully written and read to/from these shares (only a few small files thus far).

Curious if the unit will support disk-to-disk backup with this config (or even a simpler EXT-to-one FAT partition scenario; which FAT32 partition would the unit backup to if I keep 2 on the second disk?).

In the end, I'll stick with either EXT3 or FAT32 on both disks, but haven't decided yet. Concerned about security of files with FAT32 (from Internet baddies), even with router that has firewall in between. OTOH, like the portability back to my Win98 system that the disks would have with FAT32.

Be aware that FAT32 has a 4GB maximum file size limit. I regularly need to store 4.7GB and 9GB DVD ISOs â€“ so itâ€™s either ext3 or NTFS for me, as they do not have this low limit.

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Thanks. Yes, well aware of this limitation, as I am still using 98SE on my primary PC. However, given that I recently purchased a DVD writer, I'll likely get into these large files before too long and have to upgrade the OS on my PC. Thus, your point well taken that FAT32 on the NSLU2 disks would be a negative from this perspective down the road.